Abstract
A qualitative content analysis has been applied to a sample of news related to labor strikes from three major newspapers in Spain. Results suggest that news media mainly focus on the immediate negative consequences of the strikes rather than on causes and further explanations. Strikes are portrayed as isolated occurrences that happen because of disagreements between specific companies and workers. The attention is put on events (demonstrations, disorders, economic losses, etc.) and not on the structural causes of the strikes: the contradiction between capital and labor and the consequent tension among social classes. Within this frame, strikers and their organizations are delegitimized and isolated from the rest of the society. News media readers are categorized as consumers, and their interests are depicted as alien or even opposed to those of striking workers.
Highlights
Private ownership of the means of production requires labor power
The following quotations are examples of these codes3: “ Friday Renfe will be on strike: will be your train affected? (El País, 09/04/2015); “If you are travelling by plane on Saturday take the strike into account (El Mundo, 09/25/2015) and “The two people accused for the disturbances in the 29-M general strike have been absolved” (El País, 6/7/2015)
Headlines frame the strikes as a problem for the non-participant population, and for the strikers, who are at risk of being arrested
Summary
Private ownership of the means of production requires labor power. This is one of the pillars of capitalism. Men and women from the producer class sell their labor power to the owners of the means of production in exchange for a salary. There are other productive structures, the move from Fordism to post-Fordism, flexibility in production, the greater weight of immaterial and intellectual labor, financial economies and neoliberalism as the hegemonic ideology. These changes have resulted in a more complex reality, but they have not replaced the fundamental contradiction between labor and capital. In this article we assume that labor strikes are a reflection of the persistence of this contradiction, whose place within the collective imaginary requires to be studied
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
